You haven't heard much from me for the past couple of months and I want to share with you the reason why.

I had the opportunity to organize a new exhibit/gallery at one of our local hospitals. The purpose of the photo gallery is to provide patients and their families with a colorful, inspiring and stress-reducing experience - a distraction from the anxiety associated with the hospital experience. Our hope was to stimulate conversations and transport the patient or members of their families to a "happier place" where they can escape the stress of the hospital experience even for just a few moments. The gallery is located in the main hallway down which patients are transported to surgery and the families use to get to the family waiting rooms.

I put out a call for photos to our photography group on flickr and we selected the 40 best images to hang. Each photographer paid for printing and professional framing - all images are framed the same to give a uniform look to the exhibit. Each photo is for sale and we share a portion of the proceeds of each sale with the charitable foundation that supports the hospital. Its a win-win for the photographer and the hospital.

We were almost finished hanging the exhibit when a grandfather came walking through the exhibit with his granddaughter. The little girl's mom was having surgery. They stopped to admire and talk about many of the photos - I saw a smile on both of their faces as Grandpa related stories of his youth the photos reminded him of. With those smiles, I realized that our photography could mean so much more than simple pixels on paper.

Four of the images have sold in just the first two weeks of the exhibit. We will be helping the hospital buy new heart monitors for the cardiac unit.

If you'd like to learn more or even try to do something like this for your local hospital, I'd be happy to share what I have learned in getting this thing up and running. You can also check out our group at Flickr: Exposure.Detroit GC Hospital to see photos of the exhibit.